Art Forger Taking Advantage of Notoriety The British artist Robert Thwaites is out of prison and looking to cash in on his new found notoriety as an art forger. Thwaites was sentenced to two years prison after he was charged with forging the work of the 19th century painter of fairies John Anster Fitzgerald.

He told the Guardian "It wasn't a disaster. It was a risk I took and I was pragmatic enough to realise it could all go wrong and that if it did go wrong I would be punished. I deserved it. I wouldn't do it again but if I can use the notoriety, why not? I love to paint.. And I am very good."

One victim of his forged Fitzgerald paintings was an expert featured on the Antiques Roadshow program from the BBC. Rupert Maas paid 20,000 pounds for "The Miser" and insisted on keeping the work, even after finding out that it was a fake. I wonder of it was because it was such a good painting or Maas (a gallery owner) wanted to remind himself to be more careful in the future?!

I can't help thinking we live in a mixed up world. As an artist and a (wanna be) art collector (of very affordable works), I wouldn't support the life of a fraud by buying his paintings. If the artist was "very good", as he puts it, he wouldn't need to be copying the work of others.
>> Art Fraud  ¶ 11:51 PM 11 comments

  Lloyd's Building by Willard Wigan I found this story over at Coxsoft news, which was posted a few days ago. A miniature sculpture of the Lloyd's Building by the English micro-sculptor Willard Wigan will be auctioned at the Lloyd's Building in England.

The picture to the left shows the architect of the Lloyds building, Lord Rogers looking through a microscope at the sculpture. The sculptor and the architect are also shown in front of a model of the Lloyd's building.

Wigan's sculpture of the Lloyd's building is made from white gold and platinum. It took the artist 4 months to complete and it sits on top of a pinhead.

The architect of the building said "Designing the actual building itself was an intricate challenge, but to see it recreated in such minuscule proportions and with so much detail is quite unbelievable. I had to look through the microscope several times to check my eyes weren't deceiving me." BBC

I also mentioned Willard Wigan a few weeks ago, with a miniature sculpture of the Statue of Liberty.
>> Sculpture News, Strange News  ¶ 11:21 PM 5 comments

  Australian Aboriginal Art Auction Australian Aboriginal art jumped in value this week with a Sotheby's auction in Sydney that got bidders excited.

The painting to the left is called Warlugulong and is by the Aboriginal artist Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. It sold at auction for $2.4 million, which is almost $2 million more than the artist's previous record of $411,750.

There was a number of records broken on the night, including the record for the total sold at an Aboriginal art auction, which was $8,207,940.

The Most Successful Aboriginal Auction in Australian History
"Sotheby’s broke the record for Aboriginal art at auction, set more than twenty new individual artists records, including Clifford Possum. This historic auction reconfirms Sotheby’s position as Australia’s leading auction house and the respect for which the field of Aboriginal art is viewed both in Australia and internationally." Art Daily
>> Art Auctions, Australian Art News  ¶ 11:57 PM 2 comments

  Animal Rights Artist Angela Singer There's a post over at the Cool Hunting blog about the New Zealand based artist Angela Singer.

"While a strident activist against all forms of animal cruelty—including vivisection—much of her recent artwork is made from discarded hunting trophies and other taxidermy that strives to illuminate human exploitive tendencies of the rest of the animal kingdom. It's a chilling effect; these carcasses highlight how grotesque natural beauty can become after suffering at the hands of humanity." Cool Hunting

Being an animal rights activist seems to give the artist the right to use dead animals, in the same way that a black man can make black jokes. If Damien Hirst did this work we would just think that the old British artist is just being sick again. But because there's a message behind Angela Singer's work, I feel fine about it.

I still wouldn't like it hanging on my wall though. The last dead thing I brought home was the skull of a bull. I found it while rowing down a little creek and sat it at the front of the boat. Then a bunch of cows came out of nowhere and were bellowing out to me.. like I was stealing the remains of their loved one. My friend said to just row faster! I brought it home to use it as a still life prop, but I could never get the cries of the other cows out my head, so I had to get rid of it.

Anyway, her website is really interesting. I also came across the Criminal Animal project, for those that interested in both art and animals.
>> Art Exhibitions, Controversial Art  ¶ 11:49 PM 7 comments

  Woman Charged for Kissing a Twombly Painting A woman has been charged in France for kissing a Cy Twombly painting worth more than 2 million dollars. Sam Rindy was overcome with passion in front of the work and just couldn't help herself.

Painting meets its femme fatale
"I left a kiss," she told La Provence newspaper on leaving the police station. "A red stain remained on the canvas... This red stain is testimony to this moment, to the power of art." Speaking to French news agency AFP, she said the artist had "left this white" for her. BBC

The painting was hanging at the Collection Lambert gallery in Avignon, France. The exhibition is called "Cy Twombly Blooming - A Scattering of Blossoms and other Things." I couldn't find the damaged painting, but the Twombly works that are shown on the Collection Lambert website look like giant kisses. I'm sure the artist would have been amused by it, rather than being offended by it.
>> Weird Art News, Art Exhibitions, Gum Stuck on Painting  ¶ 7:49 AM 13 comments

  Top Ten Art Collectors The ARTnews magazine has released a list of the top 200 art collectors from around the world. It's probably a good list of names to have on your exhibition mailing list, especially if your works sell for more than a few hundred thousand a piece.

Here's a list of the top 10 art collectors..

• Eli Broad - Contemporary art
• Steven Cohen - Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art
• Anne and Kenneth Griffin - Impressionism and Post-Impressionist art
• Henry Kravis - Old masters, Impressionism, 20th Century art and French furniture
• Ronald Lauder - Old masters, 19th and 20th century art and Austrian art
• Sammy Ofer - Impressionist and modern art
• Francois Pinault - Contemporary art
• Mitchell Rales - Modern and contemporary art
• Charles Saatchi - Contemporary British art mostly
• Charles Schwab - Modern and contemporary art

The rest of the 200 art collectors can be found here.

ARTnews also has an interesting article on the art market and the money that splashing about at the moment.. "Last year at least 810 works of art were sold for over $1 million at auction, according to Artprice.com, which added that we should keep in mind that “until the end of the 1990s only 100 to 200 auctions per year broke through the million-dollar threshold.” At least 200 works went for more than $1 million at the recent auctions." ARTnews

While I'm on the subject of art collecting and investing in art, the LA Times recently spoke about investors entering the art market to profit from the boom. Randall Willette of Fine Art Wealth Management in London said "The idea that you should buy purely because of your passion is becoming less common. More buyers are coming from a financial background, and people want to support their buying decisions with financial information. Increasingly, art is part of the balance sheet of private clients." LA Times
>> Art Collecting

  ¶ 7:13 AM 7 comments

  Spencer Tunick on a Swiss glacier Greenpeace and the New York flesh architect Spencer Tunick are encouraging volunteers to get naked on a Swiss glacier next month. Greenpeace Switzerland has a sign up page here for those that are interested.

Posing naked in public requires a little courage or self confidence, but posing naked on an ice glacier probably requires a little more.. a little more vodka.. a little more insanity!

Greenpeace wants you to get naked on a glacier
"The Swiss shoot, to take place the weekend of August 18-19, is meant "to symbolize the vulnerability of glaciers and the fragility of the human body," Greenpeace said in a statement released on Wednesday." Reuters

"It's very freeing for some people, and they often say they feel sensual. But some people are just uncomfortable. You can tell the uncomfortable ones because they often laugh or make a joke." Spencer Tunick quote

Update: There's more on the Swiss glacier photo shoot on this more recent Spencer Tunick post.
>> Photography News, Spencer Tunick News  ¶ 8:29 PM 9 comments

  Artist Studios Leith let me know of a show about artist studios that was on television in Australia recently. I missed it, but thanks to this wonderful thing called "the Internet", I can still see it online (and share it with people all over the world.)

The photographer Ian Lloyd visited the studios of 61 well known Australian painters and photographed them. He has now put together a book called "STUDIO: Australian Painters on the Nature of Creativity" and a DVD of the same name.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation spoke with Ian Lloyd and a few of the artists from the Studio project (Wendy Sharpe, Luke Sciberras, and Ken Done). A video and transcripts of the report can be seen on the ABC site here.

There's also extended video interviews with the artists here (Ken Done), here (Luke Sciberras), and here (Wendy Sharpe).
>> Being an Artist  ¶ 1:42 AM 1 comments

  Michael Kalish License Plates Taking the car theme of the past few days a little further, Angela has pointed out a story about an artist that uses car number plates as a medium. The license plate art of Michael Kalish sells for between $5,000 and $150,000.


CBS News has a story and video of the artist online here. Here's some quotes from the artist..

"It's so Americana. It's so iconic. It's the thumbprint of the automobile. Every one is individual, and they're so unique." Michael Kalish

"It's such a great dimension to a piece of art that there are 50, 100 — you know — 200 stories within a piece of art from people from all over the country, all over the world, where they've been. Whose car was that on? And what's the story behind that? And then each piece tells a different story." Michael Kalish

Also in the report by CBS, Christopher Forney of the Artworks Gallery which represents the work of Michael Kalish said this about the artist.. "In today's age of media, it's an important element for an artist to also be a personality and in somebody who's actually portraying other personalities. It's interesting and important that he is."

>> Contemporary Artists, American Art News  ¶ 10:33 PM 6 comments

  Art Car Boot Fair and Car Art HellyUK has pointed out a couple interesting links relating to the Promoting your Art post yesterday.

From Times Online, they talk about artists using a whole bunch of new marketing and sales techniques that were once frowned upon by "fine artists." Heavyweight hitters like Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk and Peter Blake are selling their own work at the Art Car Boot Fair..

"With Sotheby’s and Christie’s holding record-breaking sales almost every week, artists are cashing in every which way they can. The modern-day art wagon is bursting with big names peddling art paraphernalia, from Blake’s tax-disc holders, or Noble and Webster’s necklace version of their F***ing Beautiful sculpture, to Damien Hirst’s pill charm bracelets and skull T-shirts." Times Online

The Art Car Boot Fair 07 was held on the 8th of July. A few artists (Sir Peter Blake, Sarah Baker, Ian Monroe and Anthony Gross) were also commissioned to paint a new Vauxhall car for the day.

In another comment on the Car Promotion post of yesterday, Steven suggests making your whole car into a work of art! He says your life will never be the same again, and I can see why!

Also, from a post last year.. Scott Wade has used the dirt on his car to create art.

The possibilities are endless..
>> Art Marketing  ¶ 8:21 PM 6 comments

  Promoting Your Art While Driving Here's an interesting way of promoting your art. Barbara Rush has spent a measly $79.55 on putting this ad on the tire cover of her car. It's an image of her work with her website address clearly visible.

I think it looks really smart. It wouldn't work this well with every image or every car, but it's something for artists to think about.

She got the idea while doing a "Promote Your Art with Confidence" course with Alyson B. Stanfield of ArtBizCoach.com.

I have also seen chrome or gold badges that can be made of your website Url, but I couldn't find their website.

Has anyone else used their car as a marketing tool?
>> Art Marketing  ¶ 11:17 PM 11 comments

  NAIDOC Week in Australia Google has celebrated NAIDOC Week with a doodle on the Google Australia homepage. NAIDOC stands for "National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee" and is a week long celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in Australia.

NAIDOC week in 2007 starts on the 8th and goes through to the 15th of July, but that doesn't mean indigenous culture shouldn't be celebrated for the rest of the year too!

The official NAIDOC site suggests a few ways to get involved at school, the office or community..

• Have a flag raising ceremony.
• Display Indigenous posters around your class room.
• Invite local Indigenous elders to speak at your school.
• Listen to Indigenous music.
• Study a famous Indigenous Australian.
• Find out about the traditional Indigenous owners of your area.
• Study Aboriginal arts and crafts.
• Read a Dreamtime story.
• Start your own Indigenous Hall of Fame featuring any local role models and achievers.
• Make your own Aboriginal art.
• Visit Indigenous websites on the Internet.
• Make your own Indigenous trivia quiz.
• Visit local Indigenous sites of significance or interest.
• Learn the meanings of local or national Aboriginal place names.

>> Australian News, Google Munch Doodle, Google Miro Doodle

  ¶ 11:37 PM 3 comments

  Doll Face Short Film by Andy Huang I found this fascinating little short film on Jafabrit's blog. It's by Andy Huang and is called "Doll Face".

I have been thinking lots about society and how we trudge through life, aspiring to be like everyone else, and wanting to be accepted by all. So you can see why the "Doll Face" film would click with me at the moment.


I may be biased, but I think artists are the least like sheep of all people. We try to challenge norms and put mirrors in front of insanity. For this we are labeled "weird" or "nonconformist", like it is a bad thing. In a society that was open to change, I doubt an artist like Banksy would be seen as a bad boy.. he would probably be a great political leader in a world that wasn't afraid of mirrors.
That's my rant for the week.. I feel better now :-P
>> Videos Online, Being an Artist  ¶ 1:27 AM 8 comments

  Banksy Mania Jonathon Jones of the Guardian has wrote a piece on the hottest artist in Britain at the moment.

Best of British?
"Banksy is a comic artist, as opposed to the tragedians who try to impress with their sublimity. He doesn't take himself or his rats seriously. Not even the ones who are trying to blow up parliament. They crouch low behind the cover of the wall of the South Bank walkway, preparing to fire a mortar shell over the Thames at the House of Commons. The image is one of Banksy's most effective. You contemplate the little rat warriors and giggle, but of course there's a wan political pessimism to the joke. Banksy's rats are about to fire at parliament, but they're not real terrorists. They are mere painted rats, cartoon animals. There's not really any chance of the dispossessed - which is what Banksy says his rats symbolize - mortaring the Houses of Parliament. " Guardian

I really like the work of Banksy, but I can't help thinking he's a phase that we are going through. Like a fad, a trend, or a song that dates very quickly. I'm not tired of him yet though, so for now I can continue to enjoy the work he does.
>> Banksy, Who is Banksy?  ¶ 7:16 AM 4 comments

  Art Bubbles go Pop As records are broken on a regular basis now, most people tend to agree that we have an art bubble.. or at least an art bubble in the Impressionist/Modern/Contemporary market.

Richard Feigen has written an excellent little summary of the art market, a history of our last art bubble, the makings of the current art bubble, and what the future may hold.

It’s definitely a bubble, but when it will burst is anybody’s guess
If a bubble, or bubbles, exist in the fine arts—as opposed to the decorative arts—it is in the highly-touted trendy contemporary market; in the late 19th and 20th centuries; and in markets that appeal to Russia and the newly super-rich Asian countries. The 16th and 17th century Italian, French and Flemings; the 18th and 19th-century British; and the pre-Impressionist French have been forgotten in this inundation of liquidity into the art market. Art Newspaper

Speaking of records, a Velázquez painting has just sold at a Sotheby's auction in London for £8,420,000 ($17,003,348/€12,472,564). This is a record for the artist. See a picture of the painting at ArtDaily.
>> Art Auctions, Collecting Art  ¶ 11:57 PM 2 comments

  Quotes about Art The Internet isn't working very well for me today, so I didn't bother looking for any news of interest. I found some good quotes instead.

• Above all, it is a matter of loving art, not understanding it.
  Fernand Leger
• There's no retirement for an artist, it's your way of living so there's no end to it.
  Henry Moore
• Painting is a language which cannot be replaced by another language. I don’t know what to say about what I paint, really.
  Balthus
• A sincere artist is not one who makes a faithful attempt to put on to canvas what is in front of him, but one who tries to create something which is, in itself, a living thing.
  William Dobell
• O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives.
  Jim Morrison
• I just wanted to find out where the boundaries were. I've found out there aren't any. I wanted to be stopped but no one will stop me.
  Damien Hirst
• The method of painting is the natural growth out of a need. I want to express my feelings rather than illustrate them.
  Jackson Pollock
• It's not a matter of painting life, it's a matter of giving life to painting.
  Pierre Bonnard

Feel free to add more quotes in the comments. I have collected quotes since I started reading books and never get tired of them. I rarely read a book twice, but I always read through the quotes that I collect.

  ¶ 11:48 PM 10 comments

  Francis Bacon on YouTube You would think that an online video sharing site wouldn't benefit a painter (or any static visual art) much, but I can easily lose an hour or two browsing through the site. Just do a search for your favorite artist on YouTube and there's a pretty good chance that you will find videos by or about them. A lot of contemporary emerging artists are doing interesting things on YouTube too.

One of my favorite artists is Francis Bacon. In this video he is talking about life, death, casinos, and art!


There's also this shorter video where you can see Francis Bacon in his VERY messy studio. (Bits of that Bacon mess was recently sold at auction)


"You see, painting has now become, or all art has now become completely a game, by which man distracts himself. What is fascinating actually is, that it's going to become much more difficult for the artist, because he must really deepen the game to become any good at all." Francis Bacon

>> Online Videos, Francis Bacon News  ¶ 7:59 PM 4 comments